Madonna upset concertgoers at her gig in Denver on Thursday night October 18 as she used fake guns during the show. The "Girl Gone Wild" singer fired fake shots in her opening number "Gang Bang", bringing back the memory of Aurora mass shooting during "The Dark Knight Rises" screening to some local people.

Local NBC affiliate 9News said it received several calls from concertgoers who were offended by the act. One concertgoer named Aaron Fransua told The Associated Press, "We’re dancing, and all of a sudden people started realizing what the song was. We all just stood there. Everybody who was around me all had shock on their face. I heard a lot of ’wows’."

Peter Burns, a local radio sports personality, testified, "You could see people kinda looking at each other." He went on recalling, "I heard the word ’Colorado’, you know, ’Aurora’, ’shooting.’ You could hear people talking about it, and it was little bit unsettling. I saw two or three people get up and grab their stuff and actually leave their seats."

Madonna’s publicist Liz Rosenberg later defended the use of prop weapons, saying removing guns from "Gang Bang" would be "like taking out the third act of ’Hamlet’." She insisted, "Madonna does not make things pretty and tie them up with a bow."